Home-Based Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation vs Placebo for Fibromyalgia: A Randomized Clinical Trial
Caumo et al. 2025. JAMA Network Open.
In women with fibromyalgia, four weeks of self-applied, home-based tDCS plus simple exercise/education reduced how much pain interfered with daily life more than a sham device, with benefits that persisted for 3 months and mostly mild side effects.
- Design: Randomized, double-blind trial of 112 women with fibromyalgia.
- Treatment: 20 home sessions over 4 weeks (2 mA, 20 min/day, anode left DLPFC [F3], cathode right DLPFC [F4]) plus video-guided exercise and pain-neuroscience education; control group used sham tDCS with the same add-ons.
- Primary outcome: Change in Multidimensional Pain Interference Index (MPII) at end of treatment and at 3-month follow-up.
- Main result (intention-to-treat): MPII decreased 38.8% with active tDCS vs 16.1% with sham (mean difference 22.7%; Cohen’s d ≈ 0.73). Benefits were maintained through 3 months.
- Adherence & safety: ~91% of planned sessions completed in both groups; adverse effects were mostly mild (tingling, burning, local discomfort), and overall profiles were similar between groups.